The Dream: Prologue and Chapter 1
by Jeremy Jones
Summary: READ! It's a first in a long story, very surprising parts. My first story. Review


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*Authors note: This is my first piece of fanfiction, so please review and tell me if I should continue the story.

The Dream

Prologue

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Come….

Come to me…

The end is near…

Come to me and watch as the people you love and desire the most perish in the Armageddon….

You belong to me…. Rinoa….

The young sorceress awoke as suddenly as the dream ended, if you could call it a dream. Sweat rolled down her glistening body, glinting in the moonlight filtering into her room from the floor-to-ceiling window. She was crying. Why? It was just a dream. She lay back down and tried to stifle her sobs as not to awaken her loving knight sleeping soundly next to her in their king size bed. The bed matched the room, lavishly decorated in fine materials. Most rooms in the garden were not as nice as this, but when you save the world you get certain things others don't. She stared out at the moon. A small smile crossed her lips as she saw a shooting star. "_That brings back memories," _she thought. Amazing how life is. One moment she was arebel, and a small one at that. Then she had met Squall, and she got caught in a whirlwind that led her to be possessed by an evil sorceress, drifting in space, saved many times by her knight, and hero of the world in such a short amount of time. _"Some hero" _she thought _"crying over a silly dream"_

"Beautiful, isn't it."

"Squall?" Rinoa said as she turned over to face him.

He was propped up on one arm, looking at the sky. He had that "almost" smile that he had the first time they danced, the first time he had held her … She loved that smile. 

"The sky" he said nonchalantly. 

"Yes, it certainly is" she said with a smile, and snuggled closer.

He said nothing, just listened contently as she told of her fascination with stars ever since she was a kid. He loved listening to her stories. So much had changed. 2 months after Ultimecia, and he was smiling much more lately, at least twice a day. All considered an improvement for him. But he was still Squall, and only really opened up her, his angel.

"You're thinking too much again," Rinoa said with a yawn.

"Whatever"

Some things don't change.

The next morning Squall was awakened suddenly by somebody knocking at the door. He sat up groggily, sun shining on the right of his face. 

"Who's there?" he asked rather angrily.

"It's me, Squall. We have a problem.

'What is it?"

"Don't you know?"

"No…?"

"Squall…Rinoa's gone."

Huh? He looked franticly to his left. Nothing was there. She was gone. But there was blood. Her blood. _"My god." _There was a trail of it out to the shattered window, then nothing.

And so it begins….

Chapter 1: The search

Rinoa...you're…gone? How? I was right there…

"Jesus fucking Christ!"

Squall was pissed.

"How in the HELL could I sleep through that!? HOW!?" Squall roared as he

stormed out of his room down the dormitory hallway. Quistis was in fast pursuit, but trying to stay out of the way.

"Squall, just calm down!" Quistis yelled. She rushed forward and grabbed him by his shoulders, flung him around, and forced him to sit on a nearby bench.

"Now listen to me," she said slightly out of breath. Squall glared at her, and sat still. 

"I don't know how it happened, but they took her, Squall. It's not your fault. They had to have put some sort of sleep spell on your or something, because you and I both know you never would have slept through anything like that. You CAN'T blame yourself for this, understand?"

"You finished?" he asked, his face a calm mask hiding all of the emotions he was experiencing all at once. She nodded. With that Squall quickly stood up and ran to the elevator.

He had failed to notice how beat up Quistis was.

Or that she was crying

Squall sat in his office, head down on his desk, his face contorted into an expression of immense sadness. He was a mess. Who wouldn't be in this situation? He couldn't help but blame himself. _He_ was there for Christ's sake.

It _was_ his fault in his mind. As long as she was gone, he was closed to the world again; his shield around himself thickened tenfold.

Yes, perhaps there was a spell on him, and yes, perhaps it might not be his fault. But that didn't matter to him. His angel was gone. Her _blood_ was on his bed. Her _blood_. And he just slept though it. It broke his heart.

"Squall" a soft voice spoke from the front of his desk.

He looked up, tears rolling down his face. Quistis was standing in her usual position. But she seemed weak on one leg. He looked up to her face. Bruises. Black eyes.

"Jesus…what happened to you?"

She silently pulled up a chair. She winced in pain as she slowly sat down, and sighed. Her normally beautiful features were misshapen in a way. Her cheek was swollen, scratches leaving fresh scars across the other cheek. Both eyes were blackened; making it very had to see her beautiful eyes, normally bright, as if a fire within her burned incessantly. But no, not today. They looked defeated. 

"Squall, I saw her being taken away."

"How?" he asked unsteadily.

She let out another long sigh. "I was out on a walk last night…I've been taking them after hours lately outside of the garden" She paused for a moment, then continued. 

"I was coming back in the front gate when I saw her, being taken away by two men. I tried to stop them, Squall, I did. But I couldn't. Their power was unbelievable. It was like there was some wall around them that I couldn't get into. They beat me, Squall, and then took her away screaming. But I got a look at their faces." She hesitated, looking at him for guidance. He nodded.

"Squall…they were _Seed's_."

"Wh…what?!" Squall said standing up suddenly.

"Yes. They were. And I know them too. They were in my class, but I don't understand how they could do this. They were always on time, never disruptive, perfect gentlemen. I just don't get it." She sighed again and watched Squall slowly turn around and look out the window.

"Have you told everyone else?" he asked quietly.

"Yes" she said.

"Quistis, I want you to search their rooms. Look at everything. Absolutely everything. See if you can find some kind of clue. Contact my father; tell him to be on a look out for her. Organize a search party. We're going after them" He turned around and started to walk out of the office.

"What about her father?" she asked as he slowed.

"…I'll take care of it."

"They were Seed's!?!?" Selphie shrieked in shock as Quistis told her and the rest of the group the news. She was surprised, as was everyone else. Zell and Irvine seemed impatient as Quistis filled them in. 

"We're going to search their rooms. I want you guys to lead the search. Once we're done, organize a search party. Get everyone we can and.."

"Owww…you son of a bitch!" Irvine screamed as he held his eye. Zell had been boxing the air as usual, but not paying attention he nailed Irvine right in the eye. As Irvine got ready to give chase, Quistis screaming stopped him.

"Damn-it! Stop acting like little kids! This is serious! Rinoa is gone? They _hurt her, _and you guys sit here being dickheads!"

Their faces turned solemn, and many students had stopped to watch the spectacle. Irvine walked back over to Selphie and put her arm around her to save face. She shoved it off and glared at him.

"Ok guys, let's go."

The search of the two student's rooms was inconclusive, except for a book that no one could read. Both of the rooms had the books in them. They were written in the language of the Centra, which they couldn't possibly have known. Other than that the rooms were normal. No one could read the books, so they were left with nothing. Nothing at all. This troubled Quistis as she sat in the cafeteria, attempting to decipher the books to no avail.

What would cause 2 normal students to do this? It had to be something big. Something powerful. Something they would throw away there lives for because they believed in it so much. How is that throwing away their lives? Well Quistis was sure that when Squall got to them they'd be dead or being fed intravenously for the rest of their lives. The thought that another Sorceress was alive somewhere popped into her mind. Maybe Ultimecia wasn't really gone. Maybe Adel wasn't either for that matter. So many possible explanations and she had no leads to any of them.

She was sure Squall was driving himself insane with guilt. The way he had looked had been enough to scare small children into crying. His faced looked emotionless as it always had, but she could see right through it. He seemed dead to any world but his own, tormenting himself. She wanted to reach out to him, to tell him it was ok. But her time was past now. Rinoa was his angel, the only one he would ever really love. 

"Quistis?" Selphie said as she sat down next to the tired and beaten woman. 

"What are you thinking about?"

Quistis tried to produce a weak smile as Selphie put a hand on her shoulder, her face one of concern.

"I'm worried," she simply said.

"I am too. I can't believe it…I thought they would be able to be happy for awhile. Squall was finally becoming someone you could stand to be around for more than 5 minutes. But now, he's as distant as ever.

"I know what you mean" Quistis said. "If he never gets her back…he's basically gone to us. He'll be here, of course, but not the same Squall." 

She sighed as she looked down at her hands, one of the only parts of her body that weren't injured last night. 

"And Rinoa" she said, looking at Selphie as she listened intently.

"I'm terrified for her. Think of all the things they could be doing to her. 

They could be torturing her, she could be dead, or worse."

"What's worse than death?" Selphie asked quietly.

"I don't even want to think about it" Quistis said. Selphie could see that 

Quistis was very troubled, and rubbed her back trying to soothe her nerves.

"Don't worry" Selphie said. "We'll find her. Then those two guys will have 

Squall to deal with."

Selphie giggled quietly, and Quistis did too. 

"I think we should go find Squall and tell him about the books" Quistis said 

as she stood up and brushed herself off.

"Yeah, me too" 

They walked out of the cafeteria together, only to find that Squall was

gone. There was a note on his messy desk that read "Going to find her. Contact me with anything that will help. Be back only when I find her."

"Get everyone mobilized" Quistis said. "We're going now!"

Squall…

Where are you…?

I need you…

Please…

Why didn't you save me?

Rinoa was slowly floating in and out of consciousness, a blinding light

shining down on her face. The last thing she could remember was being hit _very _hard in the back of the head, and then she went blank. _"Where am I?"_ She slowly opened her eyes. She was strapped down to a table, her arms and legs immobile due to the strong restraints holding her down. She slowly looked around. She was in…Esthar? Suddenly a shadow became animated as a man came to her with a needle and injected her with something. She tried to scream, but her mouth was gagged. She was asleep again.

Her dream came again. The voice, that seemed to draw her to it. It was

a deep voice. So deep… It almost scared her. But it also allured her. But the dream was always just the voice. Never the face. Oh how she longed to see the face. But how could she think that? It wasn't Squall. It was almost as if she lusted for this voice, this man. But it wasn't Squall. She felt guilty for it, even in her dreams that she couldn't control. She _wanted _that voice. 

She slowly regained consciousness…

Her eyes suddenly fluttered open. There was someone standing over her. 

It looked like…no, it couldn't be…Squall? But no, it wasn't, his hair was too long.

As the light died down she saw who it was.

Laguna Loire, smiling down at her.

She screamed.

Squall was sitting in the special Seed train car, his head in his hands. He

was on his way to Deling City to speak with Rinoa's father to see if had known anything. She had visited him recently, and on coming back she seemed very distant and shocked. It left eventually of course, but it always troubled him because she refused to talk about it.

Soon he drifted off to sleep…

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Dream world…

"Rinoa…I'm in love with you…"

She smiled, tears welling in her eyes.

"You don't need to say it Squall…I know you do…"

Even in his dream, he could feel her breath on his neck as he hugged her. 

Even in his dream he could smell her wonderfully intoxicating perfume as she moved to kiss him. Even in his dream he could feel her lips touch his in a kiss he felt all the way down to his toes….

And even in his dream he could hear her screams as she was being taken away, smell her perfume gradually leaving him as he stood and did nothing, feel the tears fall down his face as she was murdered….

I left a trail of tears on the kitchen floor

And I walked out the back door

You were not home

I was alone

You left me all by myself, now I'm gone

I regret it, I admit it

I do not wanna quit it

I'd rather be anywhere with you, than just gone, gone, gone

Out of my mind, like I'm crazy

Ain't quite loose, maybe a little bit lazy

But I know, I know right from wrong

I'm gone

Say it one more time

Hope I'm getting through

'Cause when it came in to my my my mind, that something else was up with you

Ohhhhhhh

I was not home

And you weren't alone

And that made us just about even

But I threw the first stone

I regret it, I admit, I do not wanna quit it

I would rather be anywhere with you, baby

Than just gone, gone, gone

Out of my mind, like I'm crazy

Ain't quite loose, maybe a little bit lazy,

But I know, I know, right from wrong, right from wrong

And the hardest thing for me to say

And oh it took so long, took so long

It's so hard, It's hard to look you in the girl, and say, say I'm just gone

I regret it, I admit it

I do not wanna quit it

I'd rather be anywhere, anywhere than just gone, gone, gone

Out of my mind, like I'm crazy

Ain't quite loose, maybe a little bit lazy

But I know, I know right from wrong

I'm sorry baby

I'm comin' home

Sonia DaDa

Ending note: I chose that song cause it kinda has to do with the story, and kind of doesn't. Maybe it clues you into things to come? You'll see. This is basically my first piece of fan fiction, and more is to come. Why Laguna, you ask? I dunno, you'll find out.

Please review


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